Boston, Mass — Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., son of the late senator and nephew of the late president, told an audience in Cambridge, Mass. Monday that President Bush has brought fascism to America. Kennedy appeared at a forum, "Books, Politics, and the Culture War," sponsored by the Harvard Book Store and the Progressive Book Club. A longtime environmentalist, he delivered an extended criticism of the Bush administration's environmental policies before alleging that the president has, in effect, created a fascist system of government in America. "I was taught that Communism leads to dictatorship and that capitalism leads to democracy," Kennedy...

The repeal of ObamaCare is the priority of the Republican party, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Sunday. “There will be a vote on repeal. The president, in the White House, will veto that,” he said of the symbolic gesture offered by GOP lawmakers still unsatisfied with the healthcare legislation. However, Barrasso told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” that there would also be other bills that strike at other parts of the Affordable Care Act – some of which have gained bipartisan support – including a repeal of the medical device tax and the employer mandate. There is...

President Barack Obama will address the nation tonight to announce an executive action that could allow 5 million unauthorized immigrants to remain in the United States without fear of deportation. In doing so, he will set in motion a bruising Congressional battle that has been two years in the making, one that will draw Minnesota's delegation into the fray. Although the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration overhaul in the spring of 2013, one that Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken helped craft in the Judiciary Committee, immigration hardliners in the House blocked all efforts to pass a bill. Efforts by departing...

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) are squaring off over whether new net neutrality rules would hinder or help the growth of the Internet.After Cruz last week called net neutrality “ObamaCare for the Internet,” Franken over the weekend said that the Texas Republican had the issue “completely wrong.” ADVERTISEMENT The Texas senator “just doesn't understand what this issue is,” Franken said.On Monday, Cruz’s office fired back with YouTube videos and Vine clips that it said explains how tough Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules would “calcify” the Internet and prevent people from using it as a platform for innovation.Cruz...

Three lefty bloggers speculated Friday about one or the other of two potential 2016 presidential candidates, one from each major party. The White House prospects of the Republican have been much-discussed for a few years; those of the Democrat, not so much. Esquire’s Charles Pierce lauded Al Franken’s recent “populist campaign for re-election” to the Senate and wondered, given Elizabeth Warren’s reluctance to run for president, why Franken shouldn’t give it a go instead, since he’s “showed…how you embrace the themes on which Warren has based her career in the context of a political campaign.” (Also, it would “cause Bill...

Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was principally involved in a plot with Lois Lerner and President Barack Obama’s political appointee at the IRS to lead a program of harassment against conservative nonprofit groups during the 2012 election, according to letters exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) did not want to publicly release 2012 correspondences exchanged between the IRS and Jeanne Shaheen at her personal Washington office: the agency delayed releasing the information to a major conservative super PAC multiple times, even threatening to see the super PAC in court, according to emails. (RELATED: Lois...

ABC News has declared Democratic Sen. Al Franken beat out Republican Mike McFadden for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Franken's big advantages in money and name recognition made him the favorite against McFadden. The former "Saturday Night Live" star was seen as a big target for Republicans after he won in 2008 by recount, but this cycle's race never appeared close and Republican-aligned groups invested their millions elsewhere.

Money certainly has been the villainous elephant in the room during another midterm bombardment of horrifically childish political advertising. Democrats have used every trick in the book to paint their Republican opponents as blue blazer-wearing Chatsworth Osborne Juniors, with the Rick Nolan campaign, for example, smugly referring to Stewart Mills as Stewart Mills the Third, apparently because thirds, in a "Great Gatsby" kind of way, have all the dough. Nolan might be running the dumbest campaign in the history of campaigns. He is trying to tell the people of northern Minnesota, who might very well be employed at a Mills...

MADISON, Wis. — The mid-term elections are right around the corner, and that means one thing: It’s voter fraud season. While many on the left see voter fraud as a fantasy — a delusion by right-wing conspiracy theorists — the fact is, stealing votes is very much alive and well in American democracy, election experts say. And the potential for election theft could play a key role in who controls the reins in American politics. “I don’t know if we are seeing more (voter fraud) than we have in the past, but I do think there are more folks today...

Could non-citizen voting be a problem in next week’s elections, and perhaps even swing some very close elections? A new study by two Old Dominion University professors, based on survey data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, indicated that 6.4 percent of all non-citizens voted illegally in the 2008 presidential election, and 2.2 percent in the 2010 midterms. Given that 80 percent of non-citizens lean Democratic, they cite Al Franken ’s 312-vote win in the 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate race as one likely tipped by non-citizen voting. As a senator, Franken cast the 60th vote needed to make Obamacare law.

Many non-citizens don't register or vote, but so many do that it could change the outcome of some of the neck-and-neck Senate races as Republicans and Democrats fight to gain control over it ... with non-citizens favoring Democrats, resident Barack Obama took more than 80 percent of the non-citizen vote in the CCES 2008 sample ... Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., won his 2008 election by just 312 votes, and that the votes cast by 0.65 percent of his state's non-citizens may account for that win

Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) is hoping to saddle his Republican challenger with Mitt Romney-esque charges of “vulture corporatism,” but his own investment activities, and those of his son, could blunt those attacks with charges of hypocrisy. --snip-- However, a more notorious tax haven, the Cayman Islands, enjoy the business of private equity firm Cohesive Capital Partners. Joseph Franken, the senator’s son, is a senior associate at the firm, according to his LinkedIn profile. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Cohesive has two private equity funds that, while headquartered in New York City, are incorporated in...

A bipartisan group of senators from across the political spectrum—from Elizabeth Warren and Patrick J. Leahy to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio—wants President Barack Obama to speak out and act to support Hong Kong’s democracy movement.They don’t specify exactly what they want Obama to do—they say “demonstrable, meaningful steps”—but note that a 1992 law “authorizes you to suspend trade and economic provisions should Beijing not provide sufficient autonomy for Hong Kong.”Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is president pro tempore and Judiciary chairman, leads the letter with Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Rubio.“The people of Hong Kong have sent a strong...

In almost every electoral cycle, Republicans feel they have a winning hand in Minnesota to turn the state red. And in almost every electoral cycle, their hopes get dashed. The GOP has not won a statewide electoral contest in Minnesota since Tim Pawlentyâ€™s narrow re-election victory in 2006, and according to Survey USAâ€™s latest poll, 2014 wonâ€™t break the pattern: In Minnesota, one month to Election Day, incumbent Democrats Mark Dayton and Al Franken appear well positioned for re-election, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis-St Paul. The victories do not reflect any larger love for...

Minnesota job vacancies hit a 13-year high in the second quarter, with employers reporting nearly 84,700 job openings, state officials said Thursday. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) said about 56 percent of those job openings were in the seven-county Twin Cities area, with 44 percent in Greater Minnesota. Over the past year, outstate areas posted the strongest job growth. DEED said the most common job vacancies were in the fields of health care and social assistance (19 percent of the total), retail (15 percent), accommodation and food service (12 percent), manufacturing (8 percent) and educational services...

The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a reputation for being so far left that they used to be referred to as the Red Star Trubune. Therefore it was somewhat surprising that the Star Tribune yesterday published an article that was not only somewhat critical of Franken but sounded some upbeat notes for his campaign opponent, Mike McFadden. This is in stark contrast to an article early this month in the University of Minnesota student newspaper, the Minnesota Daily, which lavished praise upon Franken despite the fact he backed out of a campus debate and barely a word about McFadden who agreed...

While incumbent Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (D) has a comfortable lead in opinion polls, some are wondering if his relatively muted response to ISIS actively recruiting soldiers from Minnesota will come back to haunt him in November.Minnesota has been a hotbed for ISIS recruitment, with over a dozen residents of the Twin Cities traveling to the Middle East to fight for the Islamic State. Two have been killed. Mike McFadden, the Republican candidate for Franken's seat, has jumped on the issue of ISIS in Minneapolis by portraying Franken as ineffectively combating the terror threat.More from ABC: Hours after the release...

As Republicans contemplate the possible size of their November victory, outlier races may get interesting. Scott Brown, a few weeks ago considered certain to lose, may well win in New Hampshire. Most folks would not have thought that Republican Terri Land had a chance in a blue state like Michigan, but she continues to run close to Peters in the race. Al Franken also cannot pull away in his re-election fight, and all the polls show that race tightening. Surely the trophy in any general election is for one party to knock off a legislative leader of the other party....

Imagine the student association at your university wages a Twitter campaign to get the two candidates for the U.S. Senate seat to agree to a debate on campus. The challenger agrees but the incumbent senator declines.. Disappointing? Yes. But guess who the student newspaper on that campus lavishes praise upon? The candidate who declined to debate. How does that happen? When the incumbent senator who declined the debate has the magic "D" next to his name as happened in Minnesota when Al Franken declined the invitation of the student government to debate his opponent. The student newspaper, the Minnesota Daily,...

Al Franken is currently attempting to present to the general public the image of someone who is willing to forge alliances with Republican senators as well as avoiding controversy by engaging in sweet corn filibusters when answering campaign questions. It is all part of his campaign strategy, along with refusing to debate his opponent, to run out the clock to election day. However, when he thinks he can get away with it, Franken will pull out the race card and basically accuse Republicans of racism for supposedly wanting to suppress the vote of "certain Americans" as you can see at...

So, Senator, will you agree to debate your opponent during the campaign? Hey, let me tell you about this sweet corn. It is so delicious that you can't eat just one ear. So sweet and tasty that I eat them by the dozen. And since I still have to run out the clock until election day, let's switch gears to ponder on the issue of chocolate chip cookies. You can buy them by the bucket and float them in bottomless glasses of ice cold milk...

For some reason, Al Franken has not appeared on many lists of vulnerable Senate Democrats. But he is no shoo-in for re-election in November, as John Feehery reminds us in the Wall Street Journal: In several polls the incumbent, a former Saturday Night Live star, can’t break the 50% mark. Given his narrow victory in 2008 (which some say wasn’t a real victory), it’s probably not that surprising that Mr. Franken is still a polarizing figure. But after six years in the Senate, one might expect that the incumbent would have built a more comfortable cushion for himself. When I...

Sen. Al Franken’s Republican challenger made a case for a power shift, bashing Democrats’ regulatory and education policies. Mike McFadden, seen as having an uphill battle, said Americans are hungry for new leadership. “Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes. But when it comes to the challenges working families are facing, all we get from Democrats is 10,000 excuses. “November presents a tremendous opportunity for America to elect new leaders, with the vision to turn our country around, and get us back onto the path of growth and prosperity.” McFadden said the Obama administration and congressional Democrats have presided over...

Bi-partisan legislation protects privacy rights while targeting terrorists July 29, 2014 | (202) 228-7561 WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today released the following statement regarding the USA FREEDOM Act of 2014 filed today. Senator Cruz is an original co-sponsor of this bill: “Republicans and Democrats are showing America that the government can respect the privacy rights of law-abiding citizens, while at the same time, giving law enforcement the tools needed to target terrorists,” said Sen. Cruz. “The USA FREEDOM Act of 2014 ends the government’s bulk record collection program and implements other necessary surveillance reforms. Importantly, it...

With Republicans in Washington thus far successfully fending off insurgent tea party challengers in competitive races, odds makers are now indicating that the GOP has a better than even chance of retaking the upper chamber of Congress in November. President Barack Obama’s sinking job approval rating is not helping boost Democrats’ chances. Speaking anonymously to The Hill, one Democratic Senator said Obama’s “unpopularity” is troubling. “It’s a tense time,” the source said.It is with this backdrop that Obama descended on Minnesota on Thursday where freshman Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) is seeking reelection. Franken has spent the last six years...

Here in Minnesota, where we managed to elect Jesse Ventura as Governor and Al Franken to the US Senate within a decade of each other, the state Republican Party held its convention this past weekend. Minnesota has a caucus-plus-primary system, in which the two parties attempt to settle its nominations with convention endorsements for state-wide offices. Often, the fight continues through to a late-season primary, drawing resources away from the general-election campaign. Democrats hold all of the state-wide offices, including Franken as the incumbent Senator and Mark Dayton as Governor, so their nominations have long been settled.Republicans batted .500 on...

Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) said he’s been just about perfect as a lawmaker in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC’s This Week. The former Saturday Night Live comedian was asked whether he would have anything to satirize about himself were he still in the humor business, and he replied it would be difficult. “When I would make fun of politicians, it was only because they were screwing up in some way,” he said. “I don’t think I could find anything, frankly.” Reporter Jeff Zeleny asked, “Nothing?” “Whoo,” Franken said. “That would be a really hard subject to satirize. I’ve...

The vast arid wasteland known as liberal radio is becoming even more barren. Loose-cannon lefty Randi Rhodes is pulling the plug on her show. News of Rhodes' impending departure came in a terse statement from Premiere Networks, which broadcasts her show through 35 affiliates -- "[We] can confirm that Randi Rhodes has decided to end her national radio program. We've had a successful partnership with Randi for several years and we wish her all the best for the future. Premiere Networks will conclude syndication and production of Randi Rhodes on May 16, 2014." (Audio clips after the jump) Rhodes spent...

A new video obtained by Breitbart News shows the former comedian and left-wing pundit playing with a pair of traffic cones pretending they were a pair of female breasts. Franken is seen in the video holding two cones to his chest and grinning in an apparent flash of comedy. The footage was taken in June 2012 at a fundraiser breakfast in Paradise Valley, Arizona, according to a source who provided the video. The event was held in support of Democratic Senate candidate Dr. Richard Carmona, who challenged Republican Senator Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. after Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ retire

For the entire decade-plus of my blogging career, Republicans in Minnesota keep anticipating that they can turn the state red, or at least purple, in national elections. In the entirety of that period, the GOP routinely falls short. The high-water mark was probably the 2004 national election in which George Bush got within four points of John Kerry in the one state that never voted for Ronald Reagan, or perhaps the 2010 election in which the GOP took control of both chambers of the state legislature â€” while losing every statewide race at the same time. Barack Obama beat Mitt...

The Democratic Party's official talk radio host got violent yesterday, in an altercation he described as an effort to protect free speech. Attending a Howard Dean rally in New Hampshire, unfunny funnyman Al Franken physically assaulted a heckler in the crowd, wrestling him to the ground in a bid to silence him. "I got down low and took his legs out," Franken boasted to the New York Post afterwards. The altercation was witnessed by NBC Washington Bureau chief Tim Russert, who called Franken's antics "unbelievable." "One of the Lyndon LaRouche guys got up and started screaming and yelling," Russert...

The Democratic Party's official talk radio host got violent yesterday in an altercation he described as an effort to protect free speech. Attending a Howard Dean rally in New Hampshire, unfunny funnyman Al Franken physically assaulted a heckler in the crowd, wrestling him to the ground in a bid to silence him. "I got down low and took his legs out," Franken boasted to the New York Post afterward. The altercation was witnessed by NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, who called Franken's antics "unbelievable." "One of the Lyndon LaRouche guys got up and started screaming and yelling," Russert told...

<p>Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean. The tussle left Franken's trademark thick-rim glasses broken, but he said he was not injured.</p>
<p>Franken - who seemed in a state of shock and out of breath after the incident - was helped back to his feet by several people who watched the tussle. Police arrived soon after.</p>

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) is having a bit of a freak out out over Sarah Palin's endorsement on Thursday of state senator Julianne Ortman, the leading candidate to win the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in Minnesota and challenge him in the November general election. On Monday, Senator Franken sent out a dire email warning of Palin's influence on the election. He also could not resist attacking the Koch brothers as well. "Sarah Palin is now involved in the race — she just endorsed the Republican who, according to the Koch-affiliated poll, is only three points down," he...

You’re probably sourly amused at all the signalling done in these paragraphs: A new Minnesota poll, commissioned by a partisan group, finds that Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken is “potentially vulnerable” as he mounts his bid for re-election. It found that Franken has a 3 percentage lead over Republican Julianne Ortman and a 6 percentage point lead over Republican Mike McFadden. The poll was conducted by Magellan Strategies for American Encore, a group connected to the Koch Brothers that is already running television ads bashing Franken. It included 1,081 likely Minnesota voters in late March. …because you probably also suspect...

What a shock- a Russian-Ukrainian billionaire who made his initial fortune from dubious stock shares eminating from the breakup of the Soviet Union has been sending big, fat checks this year to establishment Republicans and Democrats who aren't too uppity re. foreign policy.Of course, most billionaire Russians who are part owners of huge Russian mining/energy companies over there are KGB/FSB and/or mafia-connected... just like Putin And London resident Leonard Blavatnik is a typical pro-Putin oligarch, getting rich off looting the Russian state then utilizing that ill-gotten fortune to spread Russian influence around the globe. In this case, Blavatnik made almost 20 BILLION from the Russian oil/mining industries...

Framing the potential Senate contest as the "The Clown vs. The Mama Grizzly," former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Minnesota State Senator Julianne Ortman Thursday in her bid to get the GOP nomination and unseat Sen. Al Franken (D-MN). The primary is August 14. Palin slammed the former Saturday Night Live comedian's record in the Senate as a "joke" and, riffing off of Franken's Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot book, called Franken just a "Big Fat Liberal" who voted with Obama 100% of the time: Al Franken’s career has been a joke; we all know this. The biggest...

Support appears to be crumbling among constituents of Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Minnesota Democratic Governor Mark Dayton, according to new poll data posted from Public Opinion Strategies this week that the Minnesota GOP is touting.

And even more surprising, in the Star Tribune poll, which usually tilts significantly in sympathy to Democrats. Barack Obamaâ€™s job approval has dropped to 43/50 in a state he easily won in two presidential elections â€” and itâ€™s much worse outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul (via Instapundit): Men had an especially unfavorable opinion of the president. According to the poll, 60 percent of Minnesotan men disapproved of his job performance, compared to 40 percent of women in the state.People under 34 had the highest approval rating for Obama, with 59 percent saying they thought he was doing a good...

So who did cast the critical 60th vote for the Affordable Care Act, aâ€‰kâ€‰a Â“ObamacareÂ”? Facing a new election year, the GOP has an answer ready to go: U.S. Sen. Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat whose 2008 recount victory over Republican Norm Coleman helped alter the balance of power in national politics. With the rocky rollout of healthcare.gov, Minnesotans can expect to hear a lot about the symbolic 60th vote; for example, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann recently penned an opinion piece calling Franken Â“a leading cheerleader and the 60th vote for Obamacare.Â” But in a body of 100 senators, Franken...

Many are outraged that Obama would nominate a cop killer advocate to head the DOJ Civil Rights Division. When will people realize that Obama is a lawless Chicago thug politician who surrounds himself with henchmen? One such Obama henchman that we have a golden opportunity to defeat is Senator Al Franken. Franken’s numbers are tanking. Only 39% of Minnesota voters have a favorable opinion of Al Franken. While Obama deceitfully gives pious speeches about bipartisanship and civility, his henchman says things like this,“Republicans are shameless d**ks. No, that’s not fair. Republican politicians are shameless d**ks.” Al Franken: The Truth (With...

Donâ€™t get too excited about the latest St. Cloud State University poll in Minnesota, but it does at least offer a glimmer of hope for a Minnesota Republican Party that still finds itself in financial and organizational straits. Just a year after getting blitzed in the 2012 election, Minnesotans find themselves less than enchanted with Democratic officeholders. And 2014 incumbent Sen. Al Franken fares the worst of all:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO In the poll released this week, 44% of Minnesotans polled said Governor Mark Dayton is doing excellent or pretty good. Thatâ€™s a 9% drop from last year,...

<p>A slight majority of Minnesota voters expressed disapproval of President Obama’s health care law, known as Obamacare, according to a poll commissioned by the conservative Minnesota Jobs Coalition.</p>
<p>The partly automated telephone poll of 400 likely voters, conducted this week by the Tarrance Group, found that 51 percent disapprove of the law, compared to 43 percent who approve. Strong opposition stood at 43 percent, compared to strong support at 29 percent.</p>

Minnesota senator Al Franken, a Democrat, opens the door to a delay of the Obamacare individual mandate in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio. The Washington Post reports: Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) says he would be open to a brief delay in the individual mandate if the problems with HealthCare.gov aren't fixed by the end of the month, according to Minnesota Public Radio. "I think then we have to consider extending the deadline for the mandate, but let’s hope that doesn't happen," Franken told MPR. Franken has so far been relatively quiet about potential changes to the health-care law, but...

Senate Democrats vented their frustrations over the faulty rollout of the Affordable Care Act in a meeting Thursday with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior officials. “There’s a lot of frustration, everywhere,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said after the meeting. McDonough tried to assure angry senators he is personally taking charge of the disparate federal offices in charge of implementing the massive law, which has been plagued by technical errors. “He gave us the impression that he’s taking charge of the different elements and cracking the whip. He said to let him know if we had...